Practical Coach: Management Skills for Everyday Life, The

Social Influences on the Self-Concept: Seeing Ourselves as Others See Us

Our self-concept is developed, sustained, and changed through our day-to-day interactions with others. Each time we interact with people who are significant to us—parents, children, friends, lovers, spouses, teachers, students, colleagues, bosses, subordinates—they send us signals about how they perceive us. These signals may be descriptive (“You completed the task on time and under budget.”) or evaluative (“You have the skills to be an excellent manager.”). Consciously and unconsciously, we interpret their words, tone of voice, gestures, and so on to make inferences about whether they see us as interesting (Is that a yawn I see?), competent (Why did she ignore my last comment?), ...